Director
Gregory J. Madden, Ph.D.
(2010–2013)
Utah State University
Dr. Gregory J. Madden received his MS degree from the University of North Texas in 1992 and his Ph.D. degree from West Virginia University in 1995. He began his study of behavioral economics during his postdoctoral years at the University of Vermont. Dr. Madden is currently an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the Utah State University where his research is focused on the behavioral economics of addiction and behavioral-economic approaches to preventing childhood obesity. With respect to addictions, a major focus is the study of impulsive decision making. His early research conducted with Warren Bickel, Nancy Petry, and Amy Odum documented extreme impulsivity in individuals addicted to drugs. More recently his research conducted with Marilyn Carroll et al. at the University of Minnesota has revealed that impulsive decision making is predictive of cocaine self-administration in rats. His current work is exploring procedures that may decrease delay discounting in rats. Will these rats be less likely to initiate drug-seeking activities and find gambling-like outcomes less alluring? This work is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Dr. Madden is the editor-elect of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (2011–2015). He co-edited (with Warren Bickel) Impulsivity: The Behavioral and Neuroscience of Discounting (2010, APA Books) and is the executive editor of the forthcoming APA Handbook of Behavior Analysis (with associate editors William Dube, Tim Hackenberg, Greg Hanley, & Kennon A. Lattal).